Marceline's Mother
by Hcobb
Summary: Marceline tells Finn about her mother. Slight rewrite.


[Adventure Time is the creation of Frederator Studios for Cartoon Network. This work is done without their knowledge or involvement. I really have no idea if they intended this and rather doubt it. -HJC]

We had just saved Princess Bubblegum, again. After dropping us off at her castle, Lady and Jake excused themselves to go practice music.

I accepted PB's invitation to dinner, and afterwards we talked about our adventures together.

An hour after sunset Marceline flew in the window. "Bonnibel, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Marceline. Finn saved me, again. Nothing to worry about."

"I'm sorry I wasn't there." Marceline crossed her legs under herself and floated next to the table, studying Princess Bubblegum.

"It was daylight. I wouldn't expect somebody with your condition to be out at that hour." Princess Bubblegum frowned back at Marceline.

"I'm just glad you're safe." Marceline floated over and gave PB a kiss on the cheek, then drifted back. "What's with that look?"

"Well, what's with your look? A t-shirt and no bra, torn up bluejeans and no shoes?"

"Hey I'm floating, so I don't need the support and I'm not tracking dirt all over your perfect floors. I am an adult you know."

"And you have been for a very long time." Princess Bubblegum quietly sighed. "I know you don't have to live up to my standards."

I could see that another fight was brewing so I stood up from the table. "What is it with you two? Why do you act this way?"

Princess Bubblegum crossed her arms. "Go ahead and tell him, Marceline. He's going to figure it out eventually, with the way you're acting."

"The way I'm acting?" Marceline pointed to herself. "Anyway he already knows."

"I know what?" I asked them.

Marceline turned and looked at me with some puzzlement on her face. "Finn, didn't you see my mother when Ash sent you to go snoop around in my memories?"

I stood there for a moment as I thought back on my voyage through Marceline's mind. "No, I didn't."

"I guess I'm better at hiding that than I thought." Marceline floated behind Princess Bubblegum and put her hands on the princess' shoulders. "Finn, this is my mother, Bonnibel."

"What? Hey, you're joking right? You're over a thousand and she's only eighteen."

"I was only thirteen, not too long ago." Princess Bubblegum had a wistful look on her face.

"Yeah, I guess. But candy people weren't invented back then, right?" I struggled to remember what I had been taught about the history of Ooo.

"I was an ordinary woman who died in the Great Mushroom War." Princess Bubblegum reached up to grab Marceline's hands.

"How could you, Mother?" Marceline pulled away from Princess Bubblegum, drifted around in front of her, and looked at her coldly.

"There was only food enough for one. I had already been exposed, so I didn't have much of an appetite." Princess Bubblegum dropped her hands to her lap.

"You left your baby daughter all alone, in a harsh world." Marceline pointed at Princess Bubblegum.

"I had faith that your father would return." Princess Bubblegum looked back at her daughter with sad eyes.

"A fat lot of good that did me. Losing you like that drove him mad. He kept looking for ways to bring you back. He sold me to a vampire and eventually his own soul to the nightosphere. I would have been better off dead." Marceline exposed her fangs.

"Don't be so harsh to judge your father, Marceline. You came back to my grave centuries later to try your own hand at necromancy."

"They had built the Candy Kingdom graveyard around your grave. Their juices had seeped into you. I was so sure that I had failed, when I fled before the dawn that day."

"And yet, you had succeeded." Princess Bubblegum rose and swept her arm along her body. "I came back as a half-candy baby. Cotton-candy Princess adopted me as her own and as the years went by I remembered more and more of my past life. When we visited the treehouse I recognized you, my daughter."

"And Ash wasn't having any of that. He had us move out the very next night. And then he went and sold my teddy bear." Marceline turned to me. "You know the rest, Finn."

"Huh, why keep it a secret?" I asked.

"My husband." Princess Bubblegum looked so sad. "There are forces that would try to use me as leverage to try to use him. It wouldn't work."

"At least I stay strong enough so nobody tries to use me!" Marceline balled her fists as she started to cry.

"A vampire with tears in her eyes?" PB smiled, sat down again and spread her arms. "Come here my baby. Let it all out and then you can put on that strong face again."

"Mommy!" Marceline flew into PB's lap and buried her face in her mother's chest as she sobbed.

I let myself out.


End file.
